'Dumb comedies need smart actors'

2011-09-16 21:06

London - Jesse Eisenberg believes you have to be intelligent to make "dumb comedies".

The actor stars in 30 Minutes or Less which tells the story of two criminals (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) who kidnap a pizza delivery boy (Jesse) and force him to rob a bank with his best friend (Aziz Ansari) after strapping a bomb to his chest and Jesse believes there is a "genius" involved with comedy.

He said: "You actually have to be pretty smart to do dumb comedies well. There's a genius involved with comedy - when it's good - that even the best dramatist could never even hope to understand. And I'm happy to give myself over to people like the director Rueben Fleischer when it comes to such comedy. Audiences get it, and that's the most important thing. Right?"

He explained to movies.ie: "That was pretty remarkable, getting Mark to come on the show like that. It proved the guy has a sense of humour, and, hopefully, was more than cool with The Social Network. Having said that, that sense of uncertainty that the two of us were having fun with on-screen wasn't entirely faked."